ook it for granted everybody else was as bad as
he was himself, yet all the while he tried to make himself believe that
he was upright and noble in all he did, as hypocrites generally do.

The only point Wegg could not make up his mind about was how much he
could squeeze out of his benefactor, Mr. Boffin. At first he had thought
of asking for half, but the more he hugged his secret the lesser the
half seemed. At last he determined to demand for himself, as the price
for giving up the will, all but a very small share of the whole fortune.

Now Mr. Venus, though he had yielded at first to the rosy temptations of
Wegg, was after all quite honest at heart, and his conscience troubled
him so that at last he went and told Mr. Boffin all about Wegg's
discovery.

The Golden Dustman at first thought Mr. Venus had some underhanded plan,
so he pretended he was terribly frightened for fear of Wegg and the will
he had found.

As a matter of fact, sly old Mr. Boffin was not afraid in the least,
because he knew something that neither Wegg nor Venus, nor even John
Rokesmith, the secretary, knew. This was, that the old original dustman,
Harmon, had made still a _third_ will, later than either of the others.
The first will found was the one that had called the son back to England
to marry Bella. The second will was the one leaving all his fortune to
the Crown, which Wegg had found in the empty pump. The third and last
one gave all the money to Mr. Boffin, no matter whom the son married,
and gave none to any one else. And this third and last will, the one
that was the _true_ will, The Golden Dustman had long ago found himself,
buried in a bottle in one of the dust heaps.

Mr. Boffin had never told any one about this last will, because he had
all the fortune anyway. Now, however, seeing how Wegg had planned to
act, he was very glad he had found it. And when he was convinced that
Mr. Venus was really honest and wanted no reward whatever, Mr. Boffin
determined to fool the rascally Wegg up to the very last moment.

Wegg's plan was not to demand the money until he had fully searched all
the dust mounds. Mr. Boffin spurred Wegg on in this regard by making him
read to him in the evenings from a book called _The Lives of Famous
Misers_ which he had bought: about the famous Mr. Dancer who had warmed
his dinner by sitting on it and died naked in a sack, and yet had gold
and bank-notes hidden in the crevices of the walls and in cracked jugs
an